Interlude
by OtterPotter
Summary: A moment of informality between Alistair and his queen, in which they address the mounting tensions in Kirkwall and an old friend of the former Warden Commander. Just a conversation I felt needed to happen, set during late Dragon Age II. Alistair/Cousland and a little Anders/Hawke.


**I have massive amounts of homework so, naturally, I wrote this instead. I'm not really sure what it is, exactly. It kind of started off as one thing and then morphed into something else. Regardless, it takes place late Dragon Age II, focusing in on a moment between King Alistair and my Cousland from Impending Darkness, although technically this is nowhere near cannon ID. However, I felt that this conversation needed to happen, and so it did. **

**Review! (Please) **

Emmaline was waiting for him in their room. Now that the formal briefing was done her air of formality had also dropped. Gone were the finery and the elegant dresses, as was her cool composure. Instead, she was dressed as informally as he was, out of every disguise, every mask that she wore as queen. And she had never looked more beautiful to him than when she was completely herself, relaxing in what looked like one of his shirts and a pair of shorts, long dark hair falling messily past her shoulders.

"Hello beautiful," he told his wife, and she gave him a brilliant smile. It held for a moment before it faltered and her expression turned serious.

"Kirkwall does not sound like it is fairing too well, Alistair," she told him, and he silently agreed with her gravity.

"We all knew that this was going to happen," Alistair said, voicing the thoughts he had kept silent for the past few days. "If you keep people locked up for long enough, they tend to get angry."

She let out a low sigh, running a hand through her hair.

"Sweetheart, you know where this is going to lead us, right?"

He nodded solemnly, but did not speak the words on both of their minds. Civil war.

"Perhaps now would be a good time to re-evaluate our Circle," Emmaline suggested slowly, and he sat on the edge of the bed next to her, letting the implications of her statement sink in. Shaking her head almost imperceptivity, she let out a low snort. "Not that the Chantry will be thrilled about that, obviously, but there has to be a better way to prevent the abuse of magic than to just lock everyone up and teach everyone that it is morally just to punish mages for the abilities that they were born with. I'll talk to my friends in the Circle and the Chantry, and see if I can get anyone to come to an agreement."

"Good luck with that," he told her wryly, and she let out a forced laugh in agreement. "If Kirkwall is any indication, I think that plan is doomed to fail before it even starts. Speaking of your friends, however, I think I ran into a friend of yours while I was in Kirkwall."

"Oh really?" she asked interestedly, her expression filling with curiosity. "Which one?"

"A former Warden. Mage, blonde hair, sarcastic, and more than a little broody."

"Sounds like Anders," Emmaline supplied him, frowning. "Though not the broody part."

Alistair caught the expression on her face and almost wished he hadn't brought it up. Anders and Emmaline had been good friends during Emmaline's time as the Warden Commander. They had kept in touch into he had inexplicably left the Wardens. She was even taking care of his cat.

As much as she attempted to not show it, the way that all of their friends had been changing and leaving over the years was hurting her, and it killed him to see that.

"I think he's friends with the Champion of Kirkwall." Alistair told her, scrambling for the reason that he had brought this up in the first place. "He was with her when I met her. Actually, if the rumors are to be believed, he's more than friends with her. And, with the way they looked at each other, I that that the rumors may be true."

"Good," she smiled. "At least someone is looking after him. Maybe it's time to try and get back in contact with him, especially now that we know we can contact him through the Champion. Knowing Anders, he's sure to be right in the middle of Kirkwall's mess, especially if it involves the mages."

"Do you really think he'll tell us anything that we don't already know?"

"Probably not, but it wouldn't hurt to get more eyes on the situation. We seem to be at a perilous point right now, and it would help to gather as many allies as we can." She paused, rubbing her forehead and sighing. "Still, I'm not sure the difference that any of this will make."

"We stopped a Blight. How hard can this possibly be?"

Emmaline laughed quietly, placing a hand on his cheek.

"I've missed you, love," she told him.

"And I you," he replied, leaning his forehead to touch hers.

"We'll figure a way through all of this," she promised.

"We always do."


End file.
